Cooling system for ice flake maker

ABSTRACT

A cooling system for a drum type ice-making machine is provided. The cooling system circulates refrigerant to cool a drum of the drum type ice-making machine. The system includes an expansion nozzle inserted into a refrigerant supply pipe, a preliminary cooling unit wound around an outer circumferential surface of a refrigerant recovering pipe, a temperature sensor for measuring a temperature of a drum, and, a controller for adjusting a start time point of the drum based on the temperature. Thus, the temperature of the refrigerant can be stably maintained to improve the ice making quality, the production cost of the system can be reduced, and the constant production amount of the ice can be maintained.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION

This application claims a benefit of Korean Patent Application No. 10-2018-0058087 filed on May 23, 2018, at the Korean Intellectual Property Office, the entire disclosure of which is incorporated herein by reference for all purposes.

BACKGROUND 1. Field

The present disclosure relates to a cooling system for a flake ice-making machine, and more particularly to a cooling system for a drum type flake ice-making machine in which a good ice making quality may be maintained and an ice making cost may be reduced by improving the cooling system in the drum type flake ice-making machine.

2. Description of Related Art

Generally, a drum type flake ice-making machine is configured so that a cylindrical ice making drum is partially immersed in a raw water bath tray. When the ice-making drum is cooled by a cooling system and then is rotated, an ice layer is grown on a surface of the ice-making drum. Then, a blade is used to scrape the ice layer from the drum to generate flake-shaped ices.

In the drum type flake ice-making machine, a cooling system for cooling the drum may generally employ a refrigeration cycle composed of a compressor, a condenser, an expansion valve, an evaporator, etc. In recent years, many new technologies have been proposed to improve the cooling system to improve the quality of ice and the cooling efficiency.

In an example, according to Korean Patent No. 10-1463305 Patent Document 1, a refrigeration cycle is constituted by a compressor, a condenser, a refrigerant supply pipe and a refrigerant recovery pipe. A refrigerant pipe is branched into two refrigerant pipes, so that an ice-making operation and an ice-storage cooling function are performed using a single refrigeration cycle.

In another example, according to Korean Patent No. 10-1552613 Patent Document 2, there is proposed a refrigerant recovery device for a drum type flake ice-making machine in which refrigerant remaining on a bottom is recovered into a recovery tube using recovery wings, to improve refrigeration efficiency and ice making quality.

However, in the conventional cooling systems for the flake ice-making machine, the temperature of the refrigerant supplied to the drum may fluctuate, thereby deteriorating the ice making quality. Further, the surface temperature of the drum at the beginning of the operation of the flake ice-making machine is not constant, and thus the production amount of ice is irregular.

Therefore, there is a need to develop a cooling system for a flake ice-making machine with improved performance that can solve the problems in these conventional flake ice-making machines and can reduce manufacturing costs by using optimum parts.

[Prior Art Document]

[Patent Literature] Patent Document 1: Korean Patent No. 10-1463305; Patent Document 2: Korean Patent No. 10-1552613

SUMMARY

This Summary is provided to introduce a selection of concepts in a simplified form that are further described below in the Detailed Description. This Summary is not intended to identify all key features or essential features of the claimed subject matter, nor is it intended to be used alone as an aid in determining the scope of the claimed subject matter.

The present disclosure is intended to solve the problems in the conventional flake ice-making machine described above. A purpose of the present disclosure is to provide a cooling system for a flake ice-making machine that can improve the quality of ice making by keeping the temperature of the refrigerant supplied to the drum stable and can reduce the manufacturing cost by using optimal parts.

In one aspect of the present disclosure, there is provided a cooling system for a drum type ice-making machine, wherein the cooling system circulates refrigerant to cool a drum of the drum type ice-making machine, the system comprising: a refrigerant supply pipe for supplying refrigerant into the drum; a refrigerant recovering pipe for recovering and discharging the refrigerant out of the drum; a compressor for compressing the refrigerant from the refrigerant recovering pipe to a high pressure; a condenser for liquefying the refrigerant from the compressor; an expander for expanding and decompressing the refrigerant from the condenser; and an evaporator for evaporating the refrigerant from the expander and discharging the evaporated refrigerant into the drum, wherein the expander includes an expansion nozzle inserted into the refrigerant supply pipe at a position of the refrigerant supply pipe adjacent to a refrigerant inlet into the drum.

In one implementation of the cooling system, the expansion nozzle includes a body and a nozzle cap coupled to the body, wherein the nozzle cap has a through hole at a center thereof, wherein the nozzle cap has an inner concave hollow hemispherical portion and an outer circular portion surrounding the inner portion, wherein the body is formed in a pipe shape fitted into the refrigerant supply pipe, wherein the body has one end having a recess defined therein to receive the inner portion of the nozzle cap.

In one implementation of the cooling system, the system further includes a preliminary cooling unit wound around and in contact with an outer circumferential face of the refrigerant recovery pipe, wherein the preliminary cooling unit pre-cools the refrigerant using a temperature difference between the refrigerant supply pipe and the refrigerant recovering pipe before the refrigerant is supplied to the evaporator.

In one implementation of the cooling system, the system further includes a temperature sensor for measuring a temperature of the drum; and a controller for receiving the measured temperature from the sensor, wherein the controller is configured to control a start time point of the drum based on the measured temperature.

In one implementation of the cooling system, the temperature sensor is installed on the refrigerant recovering pipe at a position thereof adjacent to a refrigerant outlet from the drum.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The accompanying drawings, which are incorporated in and form a part of this specification and in which like numerals depict like elements, illustrate embodiments of the present disclosure and, together with the description, serve to explain the principles of the disclosure.

FIG. 1 is a block diagram schematically illustrating a configuration of a cooling system for a flake ice-making machine according to an embodiment of the present disclosure.

FIG. 2 is a perspective view showing a configuration of an expansion nozzle in the cooling system according to an embodiment of the present disclosure.

FIG. 3 is a perspective view showing a configuration of the expansion nozzle in an assembled state in the cooling system according to an embodiment of the present disclosure.

FIG. 4 is a perspective view showing a configuration of a preliminary cooling unit in the cooling system according to an embodiment of the present disclosure.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

For simplicity and clarity of illustration, elements in the figures are not necessarily drawn to scale. The same reference numbers in different figures denote the same or similar elements, and as such perform similar functionality. Also, descriptions and details of well-known steps and elements are omitted for simplicity of the description. Furthermore, in the following detailed description of the present disclosure, numerous specific details are set forth in order to provide a thorough understanding of the present disclosure. However, it will be understood that the present disclosure may be practiced without these specific details. In other instances, well-known methods, procedures, components, and circuits have not been described in detail so as not to unnecessarily obscure aspects of the present disclosure.

Examples of various embodiments are illustrated and described further below. It will be understood that the description herein is not intended to limit the claims to the specific embodiments described. On the contrary, it is intended to cover alternatives, modifications, and equivalents as may be included within the spirit and scope of the present disclosure as defined by the appended claims.

The terminology used herein is for the purpose of describing particular embodiments only and is not intended to be limiting of the present disclosure. As used herein, the singular forms “a” and “an” are intended to include the plural forms as well, unless the context clearly indicates otherwise. It will be further understood that the terms “comprises”, “comprising”, “includes”, and “including” when used in this specification, specify the presence of the stated features, integers, operations, elements, and/or components, but do not preclude the presence or addition of one or more other features, integers, operations, elements, components, and/or portions thereof. As used herein, the term “and/or” includes any and all combinations of one or more of the associated listed items. Expression such as “at least one of” when preceding a list of elements may modify the entire list of elements and may not modify the individual elements of the list.

It will be understood that, although the terms “first”, “second”, “third”, and so on may be used herein to describe various elements, components, regions, layers and/or sections, these elements, components, regions, layers and/or sections should not be limited by these terms. These terms are used to distinguish one element, component, region, layer or section from another element, component, region, layer or section. Thus, a first element, component, region, layer or section described below could be termed a second element, component, region, layer or section, without departing from the spirit and scope of the present disclosure.

In addition, it will also be understood that when a first element or layer is referred to as being present “on” a second element or layer, the first element may be disposed directly on the second element or may be disposed indirectly on the second element with a third element or layer being disposed between the first and second elements or layers. It will be understood that when an element or layer is referred to as being “connected to”, or “coupled to” another element or layer, it can be directly on, connected to, or coupled to the other element or layer, or one or more intervening elements or layers may be present. In addition, it will also be understood that when an element or layer is referred to as being “between” two elements or layers, it can be the only element or layer between the two elements or layers, or one or more intervening elements or layers may also be present.

Unless otherwise defined, all terms including technical and scientific terms used herein have the same meaning as commonly understood by one of ordinary skill in the art to which this inventive concept belongs. It will be further understood that terms, such as those defined in commonly used dictionaries, should be interpreted as having a meaning that is consistent with their meaning in the context of the relevant art and will not be interpreted in an idealized or overly formal sense unless expressly so defined herein.

Generally, in a drum type flake ice-making machine, a tray for storing raw materials such as water and beverages is installed below a rotating drum. When the drum is cooled, the tray is moved toward the drum so that the raw material is brought into contact with the outer peripheral surface of the drum. Thus, the raw material is cooled and adhered to the surface of the drum. As the drum rotates, the iced raw material on the surface of the drum is cut away by a cutting machine such as a blade to form flake ices.

In order to cool the surface of the drum in the drum type flake ice-making machine, a cooling system for circulating the refrigerant into the drum is used. FIG. 1 shows a block diagram of the cooling system according to an embodiment of the present disclosure.

As shown in FIG. 1, the cooling system according to an embodiment of the present disclosure includes a cooling cycle for circulating refrigerant through a compressor 100, a condenser 200, an expander 300, and an evaporator 400.

The compressor 100 compresses low pressure gaseous refrigerant into high pressure gaseous refrigerant. The condenser 200 exchanges the high-temperature and high-pressure gas refrigerant from the compressor 100 with ambient air to change the refrigerant into a cooled low-temperature liquid refrigerant. The expander 300 expands the refrigerant from the condenser 200 to facilitate the absorption of heat by the refrigerant via the evaporation of the refrigerant. The evaporator 400 evaporates the refrigerant decompressed by the expander 300 to absorb heat from the surrounding air and cool the air.

The drum 500 receives the refrigerant through a refrigerant supply pipe 510 and discharges the refrigerant to the outside through a refrigerant recovering pipe 520. The evaporator 400 may include a pipe-type evaporator tube and a plurality of nozzles formed in the evaporator tube. The expanded refrigerant is sprayed from the evaporator 400 into the drum 500 and is evaporated therein to quench the drum 500. Alternatively, the evaporator 400 may be constructed such that an evaporator coil as a refrigerant coil directly contacts the inner surface of the drum 500. In one example, in cooling system in accordance with the present disclosure, a dryer 600 may be additionally used to remove moisture from the refrigerant and thus prevent electrical leakage or clogging.

In one example, the expander 300 in accordance with the present disclosure is configured in a form of an expansion nozzle 310 and communicates with the refrigerant supply pipe 510 and is inserted into an refrigerant inlet of the drum 500. A shape of the expansion nozzle 310 is shown in FIG. 2.

As shown in FIG. 2, the expansion nozzle 310 in accordance with the present disclosure include a body 312 and a nozzle cap 311 coupled to the body. The nozzle cap has a through-hole 313 formed at a center thereof. The nozzle cap 311 has an inner concave hollow hemispherical portion and an outer circular portion surrounding the inner portion. The hole 313 is defined at a center of the concave hollow inner hemispherical portion. The cross-sectional shape of the cap has an inverted W shape. A middle portion of the body 312 has a flange shape, and each of upper and lower portions of the body 312 has a threaded column.

As shown in FIG. 3, the expansion nozzle 310 is assembled by inserting the nozzle cap 311 into a recessed top of the upper portion of the body 312, and then the expansion nozzle 310 as assembled is inserted into between divided refrigerant supply pipes 510.

In a conventional cooling system for a flake ice-making machine, an expander 300 employs an expansion valve or a capillary tube, which is not only complicated in structure and high in cost. The cooling system for a flake ice-making machine does not require a function of the expansion valve being opened or closed based on the temperature. Therefore, the expansion nozzle 310 in accordance with the present disclosure, which can be installed in a form of a simple nozzle into a refrigerant tube, is optimized for the flake ice-making machine. The expansion nozzle 310 in accordance with the present disclosure has a simple structure and improved performance.

The nozzle cap 311 may be formed by plastic working of a metal material, and the shape thereof is not necessarily limited to the shapes shown in FIGS. 2 and 3. That is, it suffices that the cap has the through hole 313 and is inserted into the refrigerant supply pipe 510 to decrease the flow rate of the refrigerant. In addition, the shape of the body 312 is not limited to the shapes shown in FIGS. 2 and 3. It may suffice that the body has a structure allowing the nozzle cap 311 to be fitted into between the divided refrigerant supply pipes 510. The body 312 may be manufactured in a dedicated manner. However, a commercially available piping joint may be used as the body 312.

Next, in the cooling system for the flake ice-making machine in accordance with the present disclosure, the refrigerant supply pipe 510 has a preliminary cooling unit 530 for preliminarily cooling the refrigerant before the refrigerant is supplied to the evaporator 400. A specific shape of the preliminary cooling unit 530 is shown in FIG. 4.

The preliminary cooling unit 530 is configured to be wound around the outer peripheral surface of the refrigerant recovering pipe 520 so as to be in face contact with the pipe 520. Before being supplied to the evaporator 400, the refrigerant is cooled in advance by the preliminary cooling unit 530 via the temperature difference between the refrigerant supply pipe 510 and the refrigerant recovering pipe 520.

Generally, in the flake ice-making machine, since the temperature of the drum 500 should be as low as possible, there is a problem that when the high temperature refrigerant is supplied to the drum 500, the ice quality is deteriorated. In accordance with the present disclosure, the best ice quality may be maintained by the preliminary cooling unit 530 precooling the low temperature refrigerant recovered from the drum 500.

In accordance with the present disclosure, the preliminary cooling unit 530 is wound around the outer circumference of the refrigerant recovering pipe 520, but the present disclosure is not limited thereto. In other words, another configuration may be applied in which the refrigerant supply pipe 510 and the refrigerant recovering pipe 520 are brought into contact with each other to cool the refrigerant of the refrigerant supply pipe 510.

Next, the cooling system for the flake ice-making machine in accordance with the present disclosure is provided with a temperature sensor 700 for adjusting a start time point of the drum.

The temperature sensor 700 measures the temperature of the drum 500, and transmits the measured temperature to a controller (not shown) for controlling the driving of the drum 500. The controller may determine the starting point of the drum 500 based on the temperature measured by the temperature sensor 700.

The temperature sensor 700 enables automatic warm-up of the flake ice-making machine. That is, during the flake ice-making machine use, the drum repeatedly starts and stops. When the drum is restarted after the start and then the stop, the temperature of the drum 500 is slightly raised. That is, since the temperatures of the drum 500 at the start time points thereof are irregular, it is difficult to produce the same amount of flake ices for the same time duration.

Thus, in accordance with the present disclosure, the temperature of the drum 500 is measured using the temperature sensor 700. Then, the tray 500 rises up after the drum 500 reaches a predetermined temperature. This may produce a constant amount of flake ice (e.g., amount per one person) for a constant amount of time. That is, the controller controls only the operation start time and the predetermined operation time duration according to the measured temperature, to adjust accurately the production amount of flake ices.

Although the temperature sensor 700 is preferably installed on the outer circumferential surface of the drum 500 for accurate temperature measurement, the installation structure of the sensor may be complicated. Accordingly, in an embodiment of the present disclosure, the temperature sensor 700 is installed on the refrigerant recovering pipe 520 and adjacent to the refrigerant outlet of the drum 500, as shown in FIG. 1. A relative degree of the temperature value measured by the temperature sensor 700 is used. Thus, when the temperature sensor 700 may be installed at the position shown in FIG. 1, this installation may sufficiently achieve the effect of the auto warm-up.

According to the cooling system for the flake ice-making machine in accordance with the present disclosure, following effects may be expected.

First, cooling the low-temperature refrigerant recovered from the drum in advance by the preliminary cooling unit may allow the temperature of the refrigerant supplied to the drum to be stably maintained to improve the ice making quality.

Second, the use of the expansion nozzle having a simple structure, which can be inserted into the refrigerant pipe, simplifies the structure of the system and reduces the manufacturing cost of the system.

Third, the temperature sensor enables automatic warm-up of the drum, such that the production amount of flake ices can be easily adjusted.

The cooling system in accordance with the present disclosure as described above may be applied to the flake ice-making machine, but is not limited thereto. Rather, the cooling system in accordance with the present disclosure may be applied to other devices similar in function to the flake ice-making machine.

Although the present disclosure has been described with reference to the preferred embodiments and the accompanying drawings, the skilled person to the art may construct different embodiments within the spirit and scope of the present disclosure. Accordingly, the scope of the present disclosure is to be determined by the appended claims, and is not to be construed as limited to the specific embodiments described herein. 

What is claimed is:
 1. A cooling system for a drum type ice-making machine, wherein the cooling system circulates refrigerant to cool a drum of the drum type ice-making machine, the system comprising: a refrigerant supply pipe for supplying refrigerant into the drum; a refrigerant recovering pipe for recovering and discharging the refrigerant out of the drum; a compressor for compressing the refrigerant from the refrigerant recovering pipe to a high pressure; a condenser for liquefying the refrigerant from the compressor; an expander for expanding and decompressing the refrigerant from the condenser; and an evaporator for evaporating the refrigerant from the expander and discharging the evaporated refrigerant into the drum, wherein the expander includes an expansion nozzle inserted into the refrigerant supply pipe at a position of the refrigerant supply pipe adjacent to a refrigerant inlet into the drum.
 2. The cooling system of claim 1, wherein the expansion nozzle includes a body and a nozzle cap coupled to the body, wherein the nozzle cap has a through hole at a center thereof, wherein the nozzle cap has an inner concave hollow hemispherical portion and an outer circular portion surrounding the inner portion, wherein the body is formed in a pipe shape fitted into the refrigerant supply pipe, wherein the body has one end having a recess defined therein to receive the inner portion of the nozzle cap.
 3. The cooling system of claim 1, wherein the system further includes a preliminary cooling unit wound around and in contact with an outer circumferential face of the refrigerant recovery pipe, wherein the preliminary cooling unit pre-cools the refrigerant using a temperature difference between the refrigerant supply pipe and the refrigerant recovering pipe before the refrigerant is supplied to the evaporator.
 4. The cooling system of claim 1, wherein the system further includes a temperature sensor for measuring a temperature of the drum; and a controller for receiving the measured temperature from the sensor, wherein the controller is configured to control a start time point of the drum based on the measured temperature.
 5. The cooling system of claim 4, wherein the temperature sensor is installed on the refrigerant recovering pipe at a position thereof adjacent to a refrigerant outlet from the drum. 